Leading Scientist Calls on Congress to Increase Domestic Drilling

Willard Green, the president of the independent American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ (AAPG), sent a letter to House leadership offering warnings and several suggestions about how to lower the prices at the pump.  The AAPG is the world’s largest professional geological association with over 33,000 members in over 116 countries.  One of the main purposes of AAPG is to increase public awareness of petroleum and energy-related polices. 

In Mr. Green’s letter to House leadership he clearly lays out several do’s and don’ts on how to ease the price of gas.  He urges “caution” and says we should not pass policies that will “increase exploration costs, decrease the available time to properly evaluate leases, and restrict access to federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf.”  These policies he warns “do not provide the American people with short-term relief from high prices and undermine the goal of increasing stable long-term supplies.” 

Mr. Green explains in the letter that “conservative and efficiency improvements are necessary responses” but “equally important” is the need to “increas[e] long-term supply from stable parts of the world, such as our very own federal lands and Outer Continental Shelf.”

Mr. Green uses the rest of the letter to explain the process we use to explore for oil and natural gas.  Hopefully the Democrat Leadership in the House will read this letter and heed the advice of one of our nation’s leading geologist.  To read Mr. Green’s letter please click here.